Stink and the Ultimate Thumb-Wrestling Smackdown
by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter Reynolds
Candlewick, 2011
review copy purchased for my classroom
Stink gets a U on his report card in Phys Ed, and his parents make him take up a sport. He considers (in the first comic of the book) Pogo Badminton, Tuna-Tossing, Cheese-Rolling, and Unicycle Hockey. After watching some sports on TV, he rules out slow-pitch softball and golf as "BOR-ing" and "WAY-boring," and he throws out seven other sports before he finds thumb-wrestling. (is that sport or "sport"? and you can find this on the sports channel? for real? yet another reason why we don't have cable...) Unfortunately, Stink's parents don't buy into thumb-wrestling as a sport, but karate gets the okay.
If you know Stink, you know that the discipline of karate doesn't come easy, although the kicking and smashing and yelling do. When Stink uses his "calm as a pool of water" at the library to tame the rambunctious reading dog, you know he's on his way to success. In the climax of the book, Stink is going for his yellow belt, AND his Shark Hammersmash goes up against T-Rex Wasabi in the Ultimate Thumb-Wrestling Thmackdown.
Why I love this series:
1. The illustrations and comics.
2. The way Stink and Judy banter. (" 'Stink, you lie like a guy with a booger in his eye.' " and " 'Prove it like Nancy Drew.' ")
3. Kids who love the series, but who have outgrown it, still read the new ones as they come out. This means that there is no stigma about reading Stink. It's not an "easy" book, it's a funny book with a great character.
I took one look at my to-be-read-before-school-starts (kids start in just over a week -- eep!) pile and I think there's no point in denying it: I am a series junkie.
A Fabumouse School Adventureby "Geronimo Stilton"
copyright 2009 in the U.S. by Scholastic
#38 in the series
I haven't read all of these, but I thought it would be a good idea to read one to refresh myself on the series. Incoming 4th graders are often comforted to find a tub full of Geronimo Stilton (along with the entire Magic Tree House series in the two tubs next to Geronimo Stilton). That's one of the best things about series reading: the comfort factor. But lest the faithful reader get bored with the series, out comes a variation on the theme. Case in point:
Thea Stilton and the Dragon's Codeby "Geronimo Stilton"
copyright April, 2009 in the U.S. by Scholastic
This seems to be the first Thea Stilton ("Geronimo Stilton Special Edition"), with another coming out in September and another in March. (On a side note, it looks like Geronimo Stilton is going to break into the graphic novel market next week with
Geronimo Stilton #1: The Discovery of America.)
Thea Stilton is Geronimo's sister. In this sub-series, she is all grown up and back at her alma mater, Mouseford Academy, teaching journalism. Five of her students make up a mystery-solving, adventure-loving group called The Thea Sisters. In this book, they solve the mystery of a disappearing classmate.
by Jeff Smith
Scholastic, 2009
This is the final book in the Bone series. But end of series does not necessarily mean last book. (see above: "switch it up" factor) Now we've got the series prequel, in which we see how young Princess Rose (later known as Gran'ma Ben) got started:
Roseby Jeff Smith
illustrated by Charles Vess
The Bone books are enormously popular in my classroom, and because of that, I see it as my obligation to stay current with the series. (or, alternatively, "I am a series junkie.") The first month or two of school, lots of my readers immerse themselves in graphic novels. Some may be "picture reading," but as long as we can talk about the basic plot and the characters, that's okay with me. After these reluctant text-readers have lived in my classroom for a month or two, they've had a chance to see that all kinds of reading is valued there: easy, challenging, graphic novel, wordless, picture book, poetry, and on and on.
With The Light: Raising an Autistic Child, Volume 2by Keiko Tobe
Yen Press/Hachette Book Group USA, 2008
Back in January of 2008, when I discovered the first volume of this series, I declared it "
Required Reading." Recently, I spotted volumes 2-4 on a bookstore shelf, but our public library only has volume 2. I'll be putting in a request that the other volumes be purchased.
These 500+ traditional manga (reads right to left) graphic novels give the reader a glimpse into the struggles and joys of a family learning to understand their autistic child, Hikaru. The first volume was birth through early elementary years. Volume 2 is "Later Elementary Years."
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing
August 25, 2009
(this one is on my to-be-ordered list since it can't be on the to-be-read pile quite yet...)
I had the good fortune to read the first book in this trilogy just last week -- that means I don't have long to wait to read the second book! (unlike the wait for Suzanne Collins' third book in the Hunger Games trilogy...)
So there you have it. Proof positive that I am a series junkie. Excuse me now. I need to dig in and get caught up with my stories!
Not much to report... Spending my time making various decisions about 'The Poisoned Apple' involving length and what to include from the now defunct second book and what not to include (Larry is pleased to discover he's no longer going to be singing and dancing his way through Corpsetithe and the Wolf Dude is happy that his namesake, Wolfram Lavoisier, hasn't been shredded). Most of the original second book will end up as waste paper as the series is going in a different direction to originally planned - assuming it ever becomes a series that is.
Observation: One good thing about concentrating on longer works, you don't wake up every morning begging your inbox for a short story acceptance. At the moment when I get a rejection, I'm filing them as 'sort later' and forgetting about them. It's very freeing. I like it.
Thanks for sharing this...I need to purchase a classroom set, it would make a wonderful lit circle book!